The bill reads "D.D Denied-Payer deceased", referencing the fact that the man's bank had declined a direct debit payment on account of the man having passed away. Virgin then added a "late payment charge" of Â£10.

"We obviously apologise for the bill and have spoken to Mr Boyden to bring this account to a close more sensitively," a spokesperson told BBC News.

Boyden also posted a message to Virgin, apologising for his father-in-law having "the unheard of nerve to be dead and therefore being unable to pay you".

He continued: "I am intrigued - how exactly did you imagine him paying this extra fine from beyond the grave?

"I'm simply not paying it, as ever since passing away, I have noticed a sharp decrease in the amount of television my Father in Law has been watching.

Virgin Media later apologised to Mr Boyden on Facebook, stating: "We offer our sincerest apologies for the wording that appeared on the bill. Automated responses from banks should not appear on customer bills and we're investigating how this happened.

"We have a team in place to ensure bereavements are managed sensitively and will ensure this wording is removed from our billing system.

"As soon as Mr Boyden brought this to our attention, we looked into this matter straight away and can confirm the account has now been closed, with all late payment charges removed."

Social media experts have suggested that the viral nature of the bill should warn companies against sending such letters in the future.

"Corporations are very good at promoting themselves, they recognise that everyone needs a Twitter and a Facebook account, they are aware the networks exist but they don't have the strategies in place to deal with the issues that can arise from those networks," said Dr Lisa Harris, head of the digital marketing masters programme at the University of Southampton.

"If they do make a mistake they should say that they are human using the channels they have created themselves.

"A lot of people as a result of seeing this will now think, 'I had that problem as well' - it can mushroom. Companies need to recognize that people have more power than they used to."